Shrouded Seascape

The crazed Audric seemed to snap back to reality upon receiving a few slaps from Charles. His mouth was twisted as he frantically said, "Those white spheres are connected! They're independent on our side, but they're linked together on the other side!"

Charles looked up at the shrinking white sphere before his gaze settled on Audric once more. "What's it like on the other side? Is it an upside-down world?"

Audric's words reminded Charles of the bizarre upside-down world that he and Tobba had witnessed from another perspective.

Audric shook his head frantically; tears and snot flowed uncontrollably out of his nose and eyes as he exclaimed, "No, no! It's huge! And I saw a river! The river was filled with countless Narwhales! They were our past selves! And our future selves! They were all shoving things in my head! I couldn't control it! Aaaaahhh!"

What kind of river contains our past and future selves? Did he see the river of time? Did they somehow find themselves inside a four-dimensional space? Charles thought, but he quickly dismissed the idea.

He stared at Audric and asked, "Did you manage to take a good look at the white spheres? You said they're linked together on the other side, so just how large is their true form?"

Audric's expression grew increasingly agonized, and the blood vessels on his forehead ruptured, making his forehead ooze blood. "It—argh! It's a corpse! Those white spheres combined are its pinky finger! No! Run! Captain! Run! Something's chasing us! And it specifically feeds on corpses! It's going to smell us!"

Charles' heart sank slightly at the remark, but there was no time to ponder over it at the moment, so he immediately looked up and shouted loudly to Dipp, who was steering the Narwhale in the bridge, "Overload the turbines and move! Quick!"

The turbines were quickly overloaded, making the entire ship tremble incessantly.

"The... other side! AAAAHHH!" Audric screamed in agony, and his head abruptly flushed a dark purple. Combined with his bleeding forehead, Audric's entire head looked like it would explode at any moment now.

"Enough! Stop making him think! He's going to die at this rate!" Linda pushed Charles away with her shoulder and shoved her hand, which was holding a potion, into Audric's stomach.

Audric's agonized look faded immediately as soon as the medicine entered his stomach, and he soon fainted with a relieved expression.

Charles stood up, feeling a bit restless and uneasy as he gazed at the white sphere in the distant darkness.

Audric's words had stirred a sense of unease in his heart. Since Audric had somehow found himself in the river of time, wouldn't that mean that Audric could foresee future events? Charles desperately hoped that Audric's words were just a bunch of nonsense.

"His memories are making him suffer; his mind is in a mess right now because of it. I have a potion capable of erasing memories, and I have to use it on him. His memories of the past week must be erased!" Linda declared firmly.

"You have a memory-erasing potion?"

"It was recorded in Teacher's book," Linda said before proceeding to stuff some more potions into Audric's stomach. Linda then swept her gaze across the others nearby.

The distant white sphere grew smaller and smaller, and when it shrank to the size of a ping-pong ball, the inevitable finally arrived.

Under the shocked gazes of everyone on the deck of the Narwhale, translucent tentacles covered in a crimson and dark green slime extended from behind the distant white ping-pong ball, enveloping it entirely.

Abnormal changes occurred to everyone the moment they laid their eyes on the white sphere. They felt as if the slimy tentacles were squeezing and grinding against skulls, and they felt like the blood coursing through their veins was boiling.

Everyone stood frozen, looking as if a hammer had struck them as they stewed in the bizarre sensation that they couldn't describe at all! The sensation felt a bit similar to what it felt like to be under a Divinity's influence, but it wasn't exactly the same.

However, it was equally as uncomfortable.

"Don't move... don't move a muscle... Let's just leave slowly like this..." Charles muttered while staring at the bizarre entity in the distance. He truly did not want to provoke the unknown entity.

Fortunately, the entity's strange ability didn't affect the turbines. The overloaded turbines allowed the Narwhale to retreat rapidly. After a while, the white sphere and the tentacles disappeared from everyone's sight.

Charles exhaled loudly. He turned around to address the crew, but he was stunned to see that several translucent tentacles covered in a crimson and dark green slime had already engulfed the bow of the Narwhale and were approaching him.

A tentacle swung up and smacked down, landing in front of Charles.

Upon taking a closer look at the tentacle, Charles saw pitch-black barbs on its underside along with eerie, elongated bloody mouths resembling zippers.

Charles' heart stirred slightly, and his expression went blank. The strange sensation, which resembled a Divinity's influence, vanished at once. He engaged his muscles perfectly and jumped backward to evade the next attack.

Bzzzt!

Radiant white electric arcs danced across the bizarre tentacle, but electric attacks seemed ineffective against it.

Charles was about to make another move when Bandages' vines sprung up and rapidly burrowed into the tentacle. They took root and spouted branches as well as leaves.

With a scalpel in hand, Linda standing next to Charles staggered forward and seemed to melt into the tentacle.

Boom!

The deck cannons bombarded the tentacle under Lily's orders.

It seemed that Lily had also remained unaffected by the tentacle's influence.

Charles produced a black spike and slashed at one of the entity's numerous tentacles, slicing them into pieces. "Relics are effective against it! Everyone, use the black spikes!"

The crew members staggered to their feet and began fighting the bizarre entity that had suddenly engulfed their ship.

At first, Charles thought that the battle would end quickly, but he was shocked to discover that the entity seemed capable of regenerating endlessly. To make matters worse, it was growing as well!

Seeing the severed tentacles dissipating into nothingness instead of staying motionless on the ground, Charles realized that it would be extremely difficult to kill this entity.

"AH!" A sailor screamed as he was swept away by one of the tentacles.

An invisible tentacle holding a black spike slashed at the tentacles to rescue the sailor, but the sailor no longer moved upon landing on the deck. The barbs on the tentacles had torn the sailor apart.

This isn't going to work. There's no way we can outlast this thing. We have to find another way to get rid of this thing! Charles thought. Just as he was racking his brain for a solution, a piercing steam whistle echoed from the Narwhale's starboard side.

While retreating, Charles glanced in that direction and saw a black exploration vessel twice the size of the Narwhale. An explorer with a red scarf tied around his head was waving at Charles.

The Narwhale's crew were overjoyed at the sight, and they all thought that reinforcements had arrived. Before everyone could cry out in joy, the distant explorer's figure swayed and fell overboard the vessel.

Then, a figure with a face composed of a confused mixture of gears and flesh stepped forward with a ruthless smile.

"Hahaha! Charles! The Pope and I have come to find you~!"

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